2011 Legislation
California State Legislature
Final List of LGBT-Related Bills – 2011 Session
(As of Saturday, December 31, 2011)
Compiled by Eric Astacaan, 916-319-2226, eric.astacaan@asm.ca.gov
Pro-LGBT Equality / Inclusive Bills:
AB 9 (Ammiano) – Require a school district to include specific information in its policies and procedures regarding discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying. Require the policies to include complaint procedures and alternative discipline policies for pupils who engage in this behavior.
Status: Passed the California Legislature. Approved by the Governor and chaptered by the Secretary of State – Chapter 723, Statutes of 2011 (Note: Takes effect on July 1, 2012).
AB 59 (Swanson) – Expand unpaid leave under the Family Rights Act to be able to care for an employee’s independent adult child suffering from a serious health condition, employee's parent-in-law, or to care for a seriously ill grandparent, sibling, grandchild, or domestic partner.
Status: Held in submission by the Assembly Appropriations Committee (05/27/2011).
AB 325 (Bonnie Lowenthal) - Prohibit an employer from refusing to grant a request by any employee to take up to 3 days of bereavement leave or to interfere with or restrain an employee from doing so.
Status: Passed the California Legislature. Vetoed by the Governor (10/09/2011).
AB 400 (Ma) - Require employers to provide paid sick days, upon the request of the employee, for diagnosis, care, or treatment of health conditions of the employee or an employee’s family member, or for leave related to domestic violence or sexual assault.
Status: Held in submission by the Assembly Appropriations Committee (05/27/2011).
AB 433 (Bonnie Lowenthal) – Allow a person who has undergone clinically appropriate treatment for the purpose of gender transition to file a petition in any superior court to recognize the change in gender and, if applicable, a name change and request for a new birth certificate.
Status: Passed the California Legislature. Approved by the Governor and chaptered by the Secretary of State – Chapter 718, Statutes of 2011 (Note: Takes effect on January 1, 2012).
AB 620 (Block) - Require public colleges and universities to improve the campus climate for LGBT students by providing access to student services and by adding sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression to campus anti-discrimination policies.
Status: Passed the California Legislature. Approved by the Governor and chaptered by the Secretary of State – Chapter 637, Statutes of 2011 (Note: Takes effect on January 1, 2012).
AB 641 (Feuer) – Ensure that same sex spouses and registered domestic partners are treated equitably when one partner applies for Medi-Cal long-term care benefit.
Status: Passed the California Legislature. Approved by the Governor and chaptered by the Secretary of State – Chapter 729, Statutes of 2011 (Note: Takes effect on January 1, 2012).
AB 673 (John A. Pérez and Lara) – Integrate health issues affecting the LGBT communities as part of the mission of the State Office of Multicultural Health.
Status: Passed the California Legislature. Approved by the Governor and chaptered by the Secretary of State – Chapter 639, Statutes of 2011 (Note: Takes effect on January 1, 2012).
AB 887 (Atkins) - Add the terms “gender identity” and “gender expression” to state non-discrimination laws where only the term “gender” appears currently.
Status: Passed the California Legislature. Approved by the Governor and chaptered by the Secretary of State – Chapter 719, Statutes of 2011 (Note: Takes effect on January 1, 2012).
AB 1155 (Alejo) - Prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, religious creed, color, national origin, age, gender, marital status, sex or genetic characteristics in the process of apportioning medical causation for purposes of determining an employer's liability for the permanent disability of an employee injured on the job.
Status: Passed the California Legislature. Vetoed by the Governor (10/07/2011).
AB 1349 (Hill) - Protect parents in both same-sex and opposite-sex couples by clarifying that the courts can consider the relationship between the child and his or her biological and non-biological parents when they are asked to rule on the status of a child's legal parents.
Status: Passed the California Legislature. Approved by the Governor and chaptered by the Secretary of State - Chapter 185, Statutes of 2011 (Note: Takes effect on January 1, 2012).
AB 1364 (Campos) - Expand the list of criteria based upon which a talent agency may not discriminate against an artist to include those identified in the California Fair Employment and Housing Act.
Status: Awaiting to be heard in Senate Labor & Industrial Relations Committee (2-Year Bill).
AB 1373 (Fong) - Would enact the Teen Dating Violence Prevention Education Act of 2011, which would authorize school districts to provide healthy relationships and teen dating violence prevention education programs to pupils in grades 7 to 12, inclusive, through curricular, extracurricular, and school climate improvement activities.
Status: Held in submission by the Assembly Appropriations Committee (05/27/2011).
HR 15 (Ammiano) – Recognize June 2011 as LGBT Pride Month.
Status: Assembly adopted resolution by a voice vote (06/20/2011).
SB 48 (Leno) – Require social science instructions to include the role and contributions of LGBT Americans to the development of California and the United States. Prohibit schools from adopting textbooks or other instructional materials that contain any matter that reflects adversely upon persons because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Status: Passed the California Legislature. Approved by the Governor (07/13/2011). Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 81, Statutes of 2011 (Note: Opponents failed to qualify referendum on October 12, 2011. The law takes effect on January 1, 2012).
SB 117 (Kehoe) - Prohibit a state agency from entering into a contract in the amount of $100,000 or more with a contractor who discriminates based on the gender or sexual orientation of the spouses or domestic partners of employees.
Status: Passed the California Legislature. Approved by the Governor and chaptered by the Secretary of State - Chapter 231, Statutes of 2011 (Note: Takes effect on January 1, 2012).
SB 182 (Corbett) – Expand demographic data relating to judicial applicants, judicial appointees or nominees, judicial candidates, and justices and judges to include the collection and release of demographic data relative to gender identity and sexual orientation.
Status: Passed the California Legislature. Approved by the Governor and chaptered by the Secretary of State – Chapter 720, Statutes of 2011 (Note: Takes effect on January 1, 2012).
SB 416 (Kehoe) - Require, not later than January 1, 2015, appropriate, voluntary, demographic, self-identification questions related to sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, to domestic partnership and gender of one's spouse to be included in the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)..
Status: Passed the California Legislature. Vetoed by the Governor (10/09/2011).
SB 651 (Leno) - Eliminate the requirement that domestic partners have a common residence in order to establish a registered domestic partnership (RDP), provide for confidential registration of domestic partnership, permit a person less than 18 years of age to enter a domestic partnership with the consent of a parent or guardian and a court order, and provide a forum for out-of-state same-sex couples who married in California to terminate their marriages.
Status: Passed the California Legislature. Approved by the Governor and chaptered by the Secretary of State – Chapter 721, Statutes of 2011 (Note: Takes effect on January 1, 2012).
SB 747 (Kehoe) - Require health care and mental health professionals to complete specified continuing education (CE) or training that provides instruction on cultural competency, sensitivity, and best practices for providing adequate care to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons.
Status: Passed the California Legislature. Vetoed by the Governor (10/09/2011).
SB 757 (Lieu) - Require every group health care service plan contract and every group health insurance certificate marketed, issued, or delivered to a resident of California to provide coverage to the subscriber’s registered domestic partner, regardless of the situs of the contract, subscriber, or master group policyholder.
Status: Passed the California Legislature. Approved by the Governor and chaptered by the Secretary of State – Chapter 722, Statutes of 2011 (Note: Takes effect on January 1, 2012).
SJR 2 (Kehoe) - Urge the President, Congress, and Secretary of Defense of the United States to end the policy of levying fines on lesbian, gay, and bisexual service members discharged under the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Pursue, Don’t Harass” policy.
Status: Referred to Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.
SR 18 (Leno) – Recognize June 2011 as LGBT Pride Month.
Status: Senate adopted resolution by a voice vote (06/23/2011).
Health and HIV/AIDS –Related Issues:
AB 491 (Portantino) – Extend simple consent procedure for HIV testing in clinical settings to non-clinical settings.
Status: Awaiting to be heard in Senate Health Committee (2-Year Bill).
AB 604 (Skinner) - Allow the Department of Public Health (DPH) to authorize entities meeting specified criteria to provide clean hypodermic needle and syringe exchange programs in any location where DPH determines conditions exist for the rapid spread of deadly or disabling disease spread through the sharing of unclean hypodermic needles and syringes. Sunset on January 1, 2019.
Status: Passed the California Legislature. Approved by the Governor and chaptered by the Secretary of State – Chapter 744, Statutes of 2011 (Note: Takes effect on January 1, 2012).
AB 1327 (Portantino) - Require the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to conduct a three-year pilot project to determine the feasibility of developing a blended per-capita payment rate for services provided to enrollees with HIV or AIDS in Medi-Cal primary care case management (PCCM).
Status: Held in submission by the Assembly Appropriations Committee (05/27/2011).
AB 1382 (Hernández) – Permit HIV counselors who are authorized under existing law to perform skin punctures to administer an HIV test, to also perform skin punctures for HCV tests or combination HIV/HCV tests.
Status: Passed the California Legislature. Approved by the Governor and chaptered by the Secretary of State – Chapter 643, Statutes of 2011 (Note: Takes effect on January 1, 2012).
SB 41 (Yee) - Permit pharmacists and physicians to furnish up to 30 hypodermic needles and syringes for human use, without a prescription or city/county authorization, to a person 18 years or older, until January 1, 2015.
Status: Passed the California Legislature. Approved by the Governor and chaptered by the Secretary of State – Chapter 738, Statutes of 2011 (Note: Takes effect on January 1, 2012).
SB 129 (Leno) – Prohibit employment discrimination based on medical marijuana use.
Status: Died in Senate inactive file.
Other Bills of Interest:
AB 559 (Swanson) - Exempt civil actions brought pursuant to the Fair Employment and Housing Act from the statute that provides discretion to judges to determine costs, in a case other than a limited civil case, if the prevailing party recovers a judgment that could have been rendered in a limited civil case.
Status: Passed the California Legislature. Vetoed by the Governor (09/26/2011).
AB 699 (Wagner) - Create the revocable transfer on death deed (revocable TOD deed) that would transfer real property on the death of its owner without a probate proceeding.
Status: Failed passage in Senate Judiciary Committee, 1 – 4 (07/05/2011).
AB 746 (Campos) - Specify that an electronic act for purposes of bullying includes a post on a social network Internet Web site.
Status: Passed the California Legislature. Approved by the Governor (07/07/2011). Chaptered by the Secretary of State - Chapter 72, Statutes of 2011 (Note: Takes effect on January 1, 2012).
AB 1156 (Eng) - Make several proposals related to bullying, including requiring training in the prevention of bullying, giving priority for interdistrict transfers to victims of bullying, and revising the definition of bullying, beginning on July 1, 2012.
Status: Passed the California Legislature. Approved by the Governor and chaptered by the Secretary of State – Chapter 732, Statutes of 2011 (Note: Takes effect on July 1, 2012).
AB 1217 (Fuentes) - Clarify the rights of parties to assisted reproduction agreements by codifying case laws, which state that the intended parents are the natural parents.
Status: Awaiting to be heard in Senate Judiciary Committee (2-Year Bill).
SB 204 (Liu) - Require that the 10 nonstudent appointees to the State Board of Education represent, and reside in, different geographical areas of the state, reflect the ethnic and gender diversity of the state’s population, and represent the various disciplines active in the public education system.
Status: Awaiting to be heard in Assembly Education Committee (2-Year Bill).
SB 559 (Padilla) - Prohibit discrimination on the basis of genetic information under the Unruh Civil Rights Act and the Fair Employment and Housing Act.
Status: Passed the California Legislature. Approved by the Governor and chaptered by the Secretary of State – Chapter 261, Statutes of 2011 (Note: Takes effect on January 1, 2012).
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